Re: LILO and W95

["Carlo U. Segre" <segre@charlie.cns.iit.edu>]

On Fri, 2 Aug 1996, John Tran wrote:

> > > ok, i just loaded linux after w95 for the first time.  i know very 
> > > little about linux or unix for that matter and i'm having a real problem 
> > > - 95 will not 'recognize' LILO, and boots right into 95.  i didn't have 
> > > this problem with 3.1.  what i need is for someone to be gracious enough 
> > > to take me by the hand and show me how to overcome this (to keep w95 
> > > from controling what's booted). please email me if you'd like:
> 
> run fdisk and set bootable flag (A) to your dos partition only.  Linux does
> not need this flag set.
> 

Just catching up on my list mail and I wanted to throw in my 2 cents 
worth.  I have been using LILO with my Win95/Linux box with no problems 
whatsoever.  I have noticed that Win95 tends to reinstall the MBR but 
there is a simple fix to this that I have noticed by accident.

I usually install Linux first and I leave a space at the beginning of the 
disk for the Win95 partition to be added later.  My Linux boot partition 
is /dev/hda2 (I resrve /hda1 for the Win95 partition).  When I install 
LILO I make all the appropriate responses telling it that I will be 
booting more than one OS and then I find that hda2 is set as the active 
partition and is fully bootable.

Later, when I install Win95, the first partition is formatted and made to 
be the boot partition automatically (as a number of people have noted 
already).  But if I run fdisk from a DOS prompt and make the second 
partition bootable once again, voila`, LILO boots Linux the next time the 
machine is restarted.  At this point all I need to do is add the 
appropriate lines to my /etc/lilo.conf in order to get Win95 to boot when 
I choose it (Linux is the default of course...):

	boot=/dev/hda2
	root=/dev/hda2
	compact
	install=/boot/boot.b
	map=/boot/map
	vga=normal
	delay=20	
	image=/vmlinuz
		label=Linux
		read-only
	other=/dev/hda1
		label=Win95
		table=/dev/hda

If you inspect the first line of this lilo.conf file, you will notice 
that the boot is set to a partition (/dev/hda2) rather than a disk 
(/dev/hda) and so LILO is installed using a boot sector on the second 
partition rather than on the Master Boot Record as would be done if only 
the disk were specified.  I believe that this is possible because the 
Linux fdisk permits up to 4 primary partitions (the DOS fdisk only allows 
1) and each can be made bootable.  The result is that if I wish to go 
back to booting Win95 only (heaven forbid), I need only activate the 
first partition and my LILO is still sitting there intact for me to use 
later.  This will allow me to reinstall Win95 to my heart's content and 
not mess up my Linux loadability and dual boot.  This method will not, to 
my knowledge, work unless the boot partitions of both Win95 and Linux are 
on teh same disk and reside under the 1024 cylinder limit imposed by DOS 
and LILO.

Anyway, just thought I'd lay my experiences out for all to use if they 
like...

Carlo

    ***********************************************************************
    *                            Carlo U. Segre                           *
    *      Department of Biological, Chemical and Physical Sciences       *
    *        Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616          *
    *   Voice: (312) 567-3498                      FAX: (312) 567-3494    *
    *                      segre@charlie.cns.iit.edu                      *
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